By Dan Walsh
Connor Watson was being carried up the stairs and sponge bathed one minute. Then swanning around the dressing rooms of Las Vegas’ $US1.9 billion ($2.9b) Allegiant Stadium the next.
Then making his fully fledged return to the game from a stinking hot St Marys demountable another minute later.
The timeline is a tad cramped, but the Roosters utility can see the brighter side of rugby league life after a torturous knee injury and 558 days between NRL games, fearing more than once he’d never play again.
Watson is back from a ruptured patella tendon in his knee suffered late in the 2023 pre-season.
Connor Watson in a wheelchair after surgery on his ruptured patella.
A debilitating recovery required him to keep his leg straight for two months as he was confined to a wheelchair, ruling him out of the Roosters’ entire season while off-contract and unable to play for his future.
He’s back with a smile, and stories too. Like how his partner Kiana went above and beyond as “hygiene had to go out the window for a few weeks”.
“For the first week, I reckon I didn’t shower,” Watson says.
“It was so gross. When I did it, it was a wet day and I had to ring a mate to drive me home with the straight brace, [telling him] ‘You’re going to have to carry me up the stairs’. One mate is holding my leg straight, two are carrying me up the stairs.
“And they dropped me on the lounge and set me up, but I was still in my wet training gear. So I’m waiting for my girlfriend to get home on the Friday, surgery was on the Monday so that whole weekend I was getting sponge baths. It was a gross time.
“But if you don’t laugh, you cry. You’ve just got to let go of all those things, it taught me a lot. I need to be more patient. There were lessons through it and I’m glad I’m through it.”
All Smiles: Connor Watson is back where he belongs.Credit: NRL Photos
At one point when his knee would not respond to treatment, Watson wondered if he would make it. He openly discussed his options with mum Jodie after moving home because her place doesn’t have stairs.
Phil Gould and the Bulldogs came calling at one point, as did the Wests Tigers, and opportunities in Super League. But staying at the Roosters was always Watson’s priority, with an eventual two-year deal a significant show of faith and easing of pressure on the 27-year-old utility.
“It was freeing for sure,” Watson says of the Roosters extension.
“Especially when you’ve got your finance guy in your ear, ‘You need to get this sorted mate, you’ve got stuff to pay for’. When we worked [the contract] out and it was going to happen, it definitely took a weight off my shoulders.
“I tried not to play into it too much but subconsciously those things can weigh on you … Definitely, I had thoughts and conversations [about retirement] with Mum because the knee, every time I would train it would just swell up, so we just put it on ice for a while.
“There are those thoughts there but I love this sport and I want to keep playing it for as long as I can. The focus was always to get back … now it’s time to pay [the Roosters] back.”
Watson’s comeback took him to Las Vegas as the Roosters’ 18th man for the NRL’s historic season opener. Then St Marys and an 80-minute NSW Cup hit-out from those demountables because the away sheds were under renovation.
Finally, Allianz Stadium and 37,594 fans for last week’s demolition of South Sydney, his first NRL outing since the infamous sin-bin Sunday final between the same arch-rivals in 2022.
And now, with Sandon Smith sidelined, the increasingly important utility role looks to be Watson’s for a while, starting against premiers Penrith on Thursday night.
“We saw last weekend, [Sam Walker] gets a head knock in the halves and then I go and play there,” Watson says.
“I’ll play any position I can hop into and do a job. That’s the role I want to do for the team.”
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